Brazil’s excellent qualifying run continued on Tuesday as they beat Paraguay 3-0 at the Arena Corinthians to extend their lead at the top of the South American Zone to 11 points with a brilliant all-round performance.
Fresh from thrashing Uruguay 4-1 in Uruguay, the Seleção picked up where they left off, dazzling their home fans with goals flowing in from all quarters.
First, Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring in the 34th minute, coming in from the right and playing a quick wall-pass with Paulinho (the hattrick hero in the Uruguay game) before unleashing an left-footed drive which arrowed into the bottom corner.
The home side had been utterly dominant, but with some stubborn Paraguayan defending on display, were finding it difficult to breach Anthony Silva’s goal.
Tite’s side, trotting out in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Coutinho’s club mate Roberto Firmino playing as the lone striker with talisman Neymar in support, continued to press for a second but half-time approached with the hosts holding a slender lead.
They had the perfect chance to double it minutes into the second half, but Neymar missed his penalty in the 51st minute to hand the visitors a reprieve.
It proved to be a false dawn for Paraguay, however, as Neymar made amends for his miss with a barnstorming display of speed and trickery to score his first and his side’s second. Beating two Paraguayan players on the wing inside his own half, the Barcelona forward accelerated towards the opposing team’s half with an intent to score. And despite having multiple teammates around him, he cut in and took a quick shot which took a deflection from a backtracking defender to seal the result in Brazil’s favour in the 64th minute.
Flying full-back Marcelo added gloss to the scoreline four minutes from time, finishing off a brilliant team move which scythed through the Paraguayan’s with deft chip over Silva.
With the result, Brazil have 33 points from 14 matches and are virtually assured of a place in the showpiece 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia, since second-ranked Uruguay are someway back with 24 points. Paraguay, however, are in seventh place and have some work to do if they wish to catch up to 5th placed Argentina, who are four points ahead of them with the same number of games played.